The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Learn to love the ‘uncool uncle’ of the wine world
Skip Bordeaux and head to Beaujolais, the unpretentious French region where the wines are no longer ridiculed, says Marianna Hunt
You’re off to Beaujolais?” my friend (a lover of all things wine-related and all things French) asked with incredulity. His reaction was not unique. Beaujolais has for years been the uncool uncle of the wine world – seen as insipid, unrefined and unfit for dinner parties. Similarly, the area it comes from has failed to attract British visitors – overshadowed by the elegance of Champagne, Burgundy and Loire.
But Beaujolais is going through something of a revival. Boutique B&Bs are cropping up across the region as well as exciting restaurants and new walking and cycling routes. At the same time, the wines themselves are enjoying something of a renaissance. So I decided to go and find out for myself how the area measures up to the grands crus of wine tourism.
“The reputation of Beaujolais was damaged by the Beaujolais Nouveau movement,” explained Aurélien Lapalus, who works at a local vineyard and offers cycling excursions in the area via Semita Tours, his company. The vogue for Beaujolais Nouveau (an incredibly young style of red wine that many say tastes like bubblegum and bananas) hit its peak in the late Eighties and early Nineties. People would race to Beaujolais for midnight on the third Thursday of November to be the first to pick up bottles just released from that year’s harvest and dash back to London or Paris to host sloshy “Beaujolais breakfasts”. However, as the quality veered towards mass production, the fad faded and some local wine-makers lost everything.
As we pedalled up and down the undulating, vine-garlanded landscape of Beaujolais – enjoying spectacular views over scattered medieval villages at each summit – Lapalus told me about the many abandoned vineyards in the south of the region. “The main reason [for their demise] is that they are associated with the word Beaujolais,” he said. In fact, Beaujolais – which lounges southwards between Dijon and Lyon – technically forms part of Burgundy (though the Burgundians are rarely prepared to admit it).
Since the implosion of Beaujolais Nouveau, local wine-makers have refocused on quality and now it forms only a tiny percentage of bottles produced. International recognition is growing – particularly for Beaujolais’s 10 crus (villages designated as producing particularly fine wines).
Wineries are modernising, too, by starting to offer experiences such as picnics in their vineyards, immersive tastings with comedy theatre troupes and – as at Domaine Frédéric Berne, an organic winery in the village of Lantignié – treasure hunts to occupy children while the adults sip.
At the same time, visitor numbers are on the up – and not just because of the wine. With its rolling, pastoral landscape and charming cobblestone villages, Beaujolais is arguably one of France’s prettiest wine regions and ideal for exploring on foot or by bike. A new 300km (186-mile) hiking trail will open in June, passing through some of the most scenic spots, and four cycling routes are launching in autumn.
“Even in France, Beaujolais isn’t particularly well known,” says Coraline Bron, of Destination Beaujolais, the tourist board. “People often come here for the first time as a stopping point on their way to the Alps or the south of France. They fall in love with the landscape, the heritage, and come back.”
While Beaujolais isn’t famed for its châteaux, it has more than 300 – on a par with the Loire Valley. From medieval beasts to neoclassical beauties, they include the “Petit Versailles du Beaujolais”, Château de la Chaize, designed by the same architect and gardener as Louis XIV’s great masterpiece.
The accommodation and food offering are improving too. Traditionally, Beaujolais was known for its low-lit bistros gastronomiques, serving regional specialities such as calf’s head and andouillette (intestine sausage), and its rustic B&Bs. Now, a new generation of young, mostly local chefs has taken root and is creating a new breed of restaurants bistronomiques, where you find traditional ingredients served in a more modern, elegant style – but without the haute cuisine prices.
La Robe Rouge is a prime example. The tiny six-table restaurant, where three courses cost from €28 (£24), was set up by Thomas Guignier above his family’s wine cellar. There we feasted on zesty artichoke carpaccio and juicy lamb cutlets on a salty sea bed of cuttlefish ink and nori while watching Thomas work his magic.
As for accommodation, Beaujolais has only a handful of hotels so most people opt for a B&B. In this sector, there has been a flurry of boutiquey openings which (happily) seem to have preserved the local, unpretentious character. At La Maison de Pagneux, which launched last year, I whiled away hours chatting to host Bruno Verdier over glasses of Beaujolais blanc from Château de Lachassagne, a vineyard 10 minutes’ walk away.
The pretty stone farmhouse has a kitchen garden – where Bruno and his wife, Caroline, grow herbs, fruit and tomatoes – and an outdoor pool. Room rates start at €130 (£110) per night and include a slap-up breakfast of crusty baguette, pastries, homemade jams, yogurts and eggs.
And there’s the thing – where Beaujolais really sets itself apart from other French wine regions is value for money. A good four-star hotel in Burgundy or Champagne can easily set you back £300 a night. At Beaujolais’s four-star château-esque Hôtel Villa Alexandre, meanwhile, rooms start at just £189. And while £30 will hardly get you started in Champagne, with that you can easily buy some of the best bottles in Beaujolais.
One final (but important) point of difference is the culture around wine. “Beaujolais is much less pretentious than other French wine regions,” Lapalus told me. “It’s very sociable and welcoming.” In every village, you will find a multitude of wine-makers happy to open their doors for (free) tastings, take you for a walk in their vineyard and sell you a bottle. In contrast, many of the wineries in Burgundy and Bordeaux are now enormous conglomerates where visits are by reservation only and sales take place via third-party négociants.
Beaujolais is accessible geographically, too – in just 90 minutes, via the Paris-Mâcon-Loché train. Driving takes longer (around seven hours from Calais) but once you are there, it is better to have a car to explore the villages and vineyards at your leisure.
With so much rejuvenation afoot, it is hardly surprising that some of Beaujolais’s cru areas are pushing to gain premier cru status – an even higher échelon in France’s endlessly complicated system for identifying good wine areas.
“If some of the vineyards become premiers crus, that will help to elevate the image of Beaujolais as a whole,” said Philippe Aufranc, a local winemaker who has been adapting his estate with new gîtes and camper-van areas to cater to the growing oenotourism. “Hopefully that will attract curiosity and people more generally.”
Thankfully, French bureaucracy means we are unlikely to see a status change for another five to 10 years, so Beaujolais lovers can rest easy that, for now, their secret remains secrète.
Marianna Hunt was a guest of Destination Beaujolais and Eurostar. Return tickets from London to Paris cost from £78 (eurostar.com).